#wtf turkey

[enchantedbyhiddles]

It’s pretty interesting to look at how Turkish-expats voted in the referendum.

In countries like Austria, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and France, people voted in favour of Erdogan’s reforms.

In countries like Saudi-Arabia, Bahrain, Aserbaidschan, USA, UK, and Bulgaria, they voted against it.

It’s like Turkish people who live in countries, where they experience what racist or dictatoric regimés or decisions can do, they don’t want to see that happening to their home country.

[enchantedbyhiddles]

Okay, but to be fair to the people in Turkey, the vote wasn’t fair at all:

people were forced to vote in the open

in the south east there was a shooting were 3 people got killed, when a major started to attack people that voted “no”

independent observers of the voting were either excluded or imprisoned

there were massive inconsistencies with the ballots and the rubber stamps used for voting (so they used non-certified ballots and in some area only “yes” rubber stamps excisted, instead of “choice” ones)

[enchantedbyhiddles]

@madsrocketship replied to your post: And another country, where people freely vote to...

Yeaaaaah, remember that time when it looked like just maybe Turkey would get into the EU at some point. I’m judging my past self for that one

Oh yeah, the early 2000th. I remember that time. The big irony is that Erdogan actually said that if they vote "yes" he will make sure that the EU will take Turkey seriously and accept them as a member... Only that the EU said pretty clearly if they say "yes" chances get slimmer and if Erdogan introduces the death sentences all talks are off immediately. Which other guy did these absolutely false and idiotic promises and people fell for it...

[enchantedbyhiddles]

And another country, where people freely vote to give away their rights and live in a dictatorship. Congratulations Turkey!

[enchantedbyhiddles]

A few thoughts on why the Turkish idea of rallying in foreign countries is seen as a provocation. It isn’t that unusual to have campaigns in foreign countries to fight for the votes of ex-pats. Other countries do that as well. The US-Democrats held official rallys in Germany.

What is the huge difference though was that they didn’t sent members of the government. That is seen as the provocation. If a foreign government comes into a country to do a rally then that is a diplomatic act that needs a different kind of protocol. If a minister goes on a mission into a foreign country they’ll either get invited or they ask to go there. That wasn’t done here. Erdogan declared that he and his ministers can do however they please and everone else needs to shut up. That is a provocation. (I’m not even exaggerating HOW he said this.)

There are many meetings and rallys about the Turkish referendum in Germany that don’t face any opposition. They have open demonstrations about it and Turkish people in Germany are absolutely free to speak their mind and campaign for or against the referendum. There are no issues about that at all. 

Yet the Turkish government says that’s not the case and provokes its people and calls Germans Nazis and terrorists. There is also the idea that the German government has forbidden any rallys, which is not the case either. They didn’t even keep the Turkish ministers from speaking here, even though they do object to the ignoring of diplomatic protocol. 

The people that kept the Turkish ministers from speaking are mayors of small towns, that say they can’t guarantee the safety for a Turkish minister in such a situation. Or the second kind is owners of hotels that say they don’t want to have such a rally at their place. As private persons they have every right to say who can and can’t be guests in their establishments.

The consensus is that Turkish people can rally here and have their meetings and everything, but please don’t have ministers come here for the mentioned reasons.

Erdogan is very happy in misrepresenting these things and thinks calling other people, who are not involved with this, names is the right answer and will help his case, when all it does is escalate things and divide people.

And all of this doesn’t even take into account that Erdogan and Erdogan interest groups (Ditib) have given orders that every Turkish person should spy on Germany. Sounds weird, but they said that children should report everything that German teachers said to them in school, people shall report what happens in their workplace, Imams spy on people in mosques.

[enchantedbyhiddles]

The relations between Turkey and several European countries (especially Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands) are worsening by the minute. It’s close to the end of all diplomatic contact. 

The Dutch embassy in Ankara is sealed off by Turkish police. No one can enter or leave. As a reaction the Turkish family minister was kept from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam.

This is not standard diplomatic protocol if things are a bit awry between two nations. This is escalating things to a point were normal civilians are kept from having access to offices of their own country in case of emergeny.

This all comes after European officials opposed Turkish rallyes for the referendum on expanding the power of the president (they cited security concerns) and Turkish officials responded by calling Germany and the Netherlands terrorists and Nazis.

[enchantedbyhiddles]

@heavymist replied to your post “I know that we all talk about what is happening in the USA, but we...”

I wish the coup-d'état succeeded 

 Talking about last year's attempt at "dethroning this AH"!

Me too. Kind off. Back then it was a democracy and overthrowing legal elections in such a way is bad, but then we saw that it would lead into a different direction. Not sure a military dictatorship would be better in any way. Especially since no matter what WE think about what is happening in Turkey, the vast majority of Turkish people love him and totally go along with everything he does and plans...

That ill-adviced and ill-handled coup-d’état was the best thing that could have happened to him. Conveniently he already had the list of people he needed to get rid off ready before it.That gave him a reason to use it.

[enchantedbyhiddles]

I know that we all talk about what is happening in the USA, but we really should look towards Turkey. They are willingly going into a dictatorship and adore Erdogan, while totally ignoring that he is silencing and prosecuting everyone who things different or even does as much as question what is happening. The minister of justice said that he’d put everyone in jail that is voting against making Turkey a dictatorship in the upcoming referendum. More journalists are imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country of the world.

Erdogan basically called Germany a terrorist country for daring to protest that a German journalist got imprisoned and faces threats as a terrorist and mass murderer for writing an article in which he said that Erdogan concentrates political power as a president.

Things are totally out of control. The relations between Turkey and Germany are worse than ever. We see a country that was a good democracy and on its way to become a member of the EU, turning into a full blown dictatorship. They have their scapegoats in place. Erdogan treats every Kurd as a terrorist and that is basically a genocide in the making. A whole group of people faces possible death sentences, because of their ethnicity. Every person writing against him, writing positively about Kurds or only asking what is going on is treated as a terrorist as well.

Last year every prisoner that wasn’t a murderer or rapist got an amnesty, just so he could imprison journalists, judges, teachers, soldiers, politicians of different parties, Kurds, and basically everyone else who stands up against him. Erdogan declared opposing him an act of terrorism and treats everyone as a criminal.

It’s too complicated and too much to cover everything here, because so much happened since around the same time last year. But please inform yourself and please don’t look away.